CBN, AIT, Others to Hold National Economic Summit May

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with Africa Independent Televsion’s Money Show has announced the planned convocation of an economic summit in Abuja on May 16, with a view to rescuing the economy from its current doldrums.

With the theme: ‘Nigerian Economy: Navigating a Sustainable Landscape,’ the organisers said the summit would parade who-is-who in Nigeria’s economic sector with the expectation that the summit would prescribe the way out of the nation’s current economic quagmire.
While unfolding the plan in Abuja, chairman of the planning committee, Dr. Austin Uganwa, said the crisis rocking the nation’s economy to its bottom has made the convocation of the summit imperative adding that the summit will be broad-based.

He said the event would also provide the platform for experts to explore the myriad of challenges currently confronting the economy and simultaneously evolve solution to its precarious state.

According to him, the summit will come out with an economic package that will be injected into the nation with a view to rescuing the economy from its current critical state and as well provide a relief to the bewildered Nigerians. He solicited the support of the media which he said was crucial to the expected overall success of the summit.
“The deep concerns arising from these economic challenges and many others not articulated here, have therefore made a broad-based economic stakeholders’ summit of this nature, an urgent socio-economic imperative. Accordingly, the first Nigerian Economic Stakeholders’ Summit is being convened to bring together experts from all the sectors of the economy for a veritable talk shop to discuss, analyse and dissect the many challenges afflicting the economy with a view to pointing desirable way forward.

“The summit is expected to evolve fresh and absolute economic perspectives and options the government could necessarily rely on to drive the economy out of its present state. The fundamental objective behind this summit is to distil a critical and realistic economic package that cuts across all the economic sectors which the government is expected to integrate into its economic and development policy thrusts to ensure a lasting solution to the economic challenge. The ultimate goal is to ensure the rebound of the economy for the benefit of all Nigerians.

“It is important to add that we have to a large extent secured government’s buy-in by procuring the endorsement of relevant committees of the National Assembly and other government agencies. Consequently, the outcomes of the summit will be neatly and professionally put together and forwarded to all the relevant government institutions for required integration into the national economic plan.

“We are therefore pertinently using this forum to seek and enlist the support and partnership of the media towards making this event crucial for Nigeria to survive as a nation, a huge success. This is on account of the critical place of the media as a vehicle for social and economic crusading based on social responsibility media paradigm, cornerstone of media practice in democracy,” he said.

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